Gastric bypass surgery is a lifesaver for more and more people as obesity sweeps across much of the western world but its greatest problem lies in the fact that a noteworthy number of people either fail to lose a reasonable amount of weight after surgery or go on to regain much of the weight that is lost initially.
There are of course a number of explanations for this failure to lose weight or to put on weight again and top of the list in without question the fact that too many people simply find it impossible to make the lifestyle changes necessary after surgery and simply eat their way back to obesity. However, researchers have now identified a genetic component that might explain some people's failure to lose weight after gastric bypass surgery.
In a recent study which involved in excess of seven hundred morbidly obese patients blood samples were tested for two single nucleotide polymorphisma (SNPs). In simple terms a SNP is a human DNA sequence, variations in the pattern of which could indicate how people will develop diseases and also respond to things like drugs and vaccines. Without looking at the details of this study which are complicated to say the least, the researchers discovered that about twenty percent of the people studied showed a combination of specific SNPs that indicate that they are at risk of not simply failing to lose weight after gastric bypass surgery, but might actually be at risk of putting on weight.
The difficulty we face now is not primarily that of finding a solution for those people who suffer from obesity, but of preventing obesity to start with and this is essentially a matter of education. There is no doubt that a minority of people are prone to obesity and genetics and similar factors might well have a part to play in this. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the obesity which we these days arises out of nothing more than poor eating habits and a lack of sufficient exercise.
However, the real problem is that once people have reached it is human nature to look for any reason for their excessive weight that takes away that feeling of guilt which comes from the fact that they may just have caused the problem themselves. What better excuse could you hand somebody than to say to them that their excess weight is genetic.
This is not to suggest that research into SNPs is not valid or to say that there is no genetic link to the failure to lose weight or to gain weight following gastric bypass surgery. The danger however lies in publishing this information too early in the research process and simply handing people another excuse for not tackling their obesity at a time at which obesity is at epidemic proportions and most worrying of all is increasingly being found in very young children.
Research is vital and has to be given its place in the scheme of things but we have to be careful that it does not divert us from the need to deal with obesity by educating people to alter their eating habits and to take sufficient exercise.
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